In a Report titled “L’imbroglio dei finti profughi Eritrei” an Italian journalist has revealed after visiting a refugee reception centre in Italy late last year that he was shocked to learn that, out the 109,266 total refugees from different nationalities in Africa, over 40% (43,000) of them are Ethiopians from the Tigray region, who falsely claimed to be “Eritreans” in order to obtain political asylum. The Tigrians were able to deceive the authorities due to the fact because they speak the same language, and are with similar Semitic facial features as their Eritrean neighbours.

According to the journalist, it’s shocking that the refugee centres in Italy are turning a blind eye to an on-going fraud of such magnitude that is being committed with total impunity. In reality, there are fewer than 2,651 genuine Eritreans in Italy awaiting political asylum, whose migration has shown a significant decrease since 2013.